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David Schlosser
Background David Schlosser of Flagstaff, Arizona, is a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress in the November 7, 2006 general election. * http://schlosserforcongress.com/ David Schlosser, 38, is a public relations manager for a global microprocessor company and has been a part-time instructor in the School of Communications at Northern Arizona University. He brings nearly a decade of political experience to his campaign for Congress, and is a graduate of Trinity University and the University of Texas. His wife, Anne, is a corporate training and development professional. Anyone can take his issues identification survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=947042343520. Issues My commitment to you is to tell you what I believe and what I will do if you send me to Congress. You may not always agree with me, but you’ll always know exactly where I stand. You can explore a wide range of my positions on the questionnaires I've received from various publications and special interests. My blog is filled with my commentary on issues I've been asked about or that I consider important, and I write a weekly opinion column that goes into greater detail on individual topics. And you can listen to speeches I've delivered as well. I approach policy and political issues from this perspective: government’s role is to protect your rights, and to do only those things that individuals cannot do better themselves. You can make better decisions about the important issues in your life than a legislator, bureaucrat, or judge. As we’ve allowed government to make more and more of the important decisions in our lives, we’ve exposed ourselves to the very real danger that elected officials, their unelected bureaucrats, and judges will do exactly the opposite of what we intended when we empowered them. President Gerald Ford noted this trend when he addressed Congress on August 12, 1974 and told the assembly that “a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” If you are interested in an issue I have not yet addressed here, please send me an email so I can tell you and the other visitors to this site what I will do if elected to represent Arizona’s First Congressional District. And, check back regularly – I am always adding to this site, and I assure you that my positions will make you think about celebrating the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. The most important issues I will address in this campaign include: * Greater control over immigration and American borders, based on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship rather than deportation, amnesty, or new categories of international visitor status. * Increased access to health insurance that is personal and portable, rather than hampered by employment or government conditions. * Increased public transparency and accountability that is based on a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and government accounting standards that comply with the same rules applied to private companies, rather than lock boxes, trust funds, and emergency and supplemental spending bills. * Improved public schools that are based on parent and student choice, with standards of achievement established by employers and universities rather than political agendas and unfunded federal mandates. * Greater national security that is based on robust human intelligence, domestic and international sharing of intelligence, diplomatic and covert support for democracy movements, and defensive military action, rather than new and bigger bureaucracies. * Increased retirement and family financial security that is based on personal and transferable ownership of assets, rather than politically manipulated welfare. * Enhanced environmental protection that is based on concepts of private property, rather than public ownership subject to political games. * Greater legislative accountability through term limits, the Presidential line-item veto, an end to the practice of “ear marking” special funds for individual projects or districts, requiring Congress to vote on all regulations created as a result of legislation it passes, and changing Congressional rules to ensure members read the legislation they are considering. Email Letters Funding email from October, 2006 Friends of Liberty, I wrote in July to describe the exciting chance to promote the liberty agenda in Arizona’s First Congressional District. The interest and generosity inspired by that request for your support has paid off: our campaign is one of the most successful Libertarian Congress races in the country. Our general election features a non-resident Republican incumbent being investigated for corruption and a fatally wounded Democratic candidate. I’ve put my ten-plus years of managing federal, state, and local political campaigns to work in my own run for US Congress. We’ve enjoyed great successes since our May announcement: - CQ moved this district from “safe Republican” to “leans” – only one step above “toss-up.” - I ran more television advertising than 4 of the 5 Democratic candidates combined – and it’s been running consistently since mid-August. - I earned the endorsement of one of the Democratic primary candidates. - I challenged the Republican and Democratic candidates to an aggressive series of 10 debates before the general election – and won. Now, your support is essential. I’ve already committed more than $4,000 to advertising in the last two weeks of the campaign. But, to capitalize on this week’s news of the incumbent’s shady land deals, I need your contribution of $250, $100, or just $50 to buy new radio and TV ads. As an advocate of our shared beliefs in freedom and responsibility, your support can dramatically alter the outcome in AZ1 – if you’ll help right now. Your donation is essential and affordable: we can buy TV, cable, and radio commercials for $10-15. Jesse Ventura upset the 1998 Minnesota governor’s race with voters who were disgusted by vicious personal attacks between the R and the D. In November, that upset will occur in Arizona’s First Congressional District. I’ve started, and the R and D are finishing each other off. Now, I need your help to promote our positive campaign for freedom, responsibility, and accountability. In this year of discontent with politics as usual, our campaign is shining a national spotlight on the alternative of liberty. You can help create a platform for a strong, credible Libertarian candidate to share freedom and accountability with the entire country. Please take just a moment to demonstrate your support for the ideals we share. Visit, volunteer, or contribute now. Sincerely, David Schlosser _____________________ Schlosser for Congress - Arizona's 1st www.SchlosserForCongress.com 103 E Mohawk Dr | Flagstaff AZ 86001-6904 | 928-255-0195 Freedom - Responsibility - Accountability ... to balance the checkbook Paid political advertisement authorized by Schlosser for Congress, Scott Gude, Treasurer. Funding email from July, 2006 To my libertarian friends, I need to tell you about some exciting developments in Arizona’s First Congressional District and seek your support as an advocate of the liberty agenda. Arizona is fertile ground for Libertarian candidates. We have a heritage of independence and fair Congressional districts. Combined with a weak, non-resident Republican incumbent in a plurality-Democratic district, and a splintered Democratic party led by a fatally wounded candidate, our race is emerging as one of the best opportunities in the country for Libertarians to make a decisive difference in the outcome. After more than a decade of managing national, state, and local political campaigns for candidates who share my dedication to freedom and responsibility, I started running for US Congress less than two months ago. Since then, we’ve enjoyed great successes: * We’ve broken AZ1 fund-raising records and earned favorable attention from local and national news media. * I qualified for the ballot and attended the Libertarian National Convention, speaking in front of activists from around the nation. * We’ve established a strong presence in the district’s population centers and are constantly adding to our team of passionate supporters. * Targeted online advertising begins this week. * We’re planning TV and radio advertising starting before the primary and continuing through the November election. Support from people like you is critical for us to extend our success. As an advocate of our shared beliefs in freedom and responsibility, you have the unique ability to support a campaign where we can have a tremendous impact. Begin by visiting SchlosserForCongress.com. Direct your Libertarian friends there, too. Our Web site is generating support from around the country – indeed, around the world – in the form of links, blog mentions, media attention, email subscriptions, publishing of op-ed columns, and financial contributions. Those contributions are essential and affordable in this rural, sparsely populated district. We can buy TV, cable, and radio commercials for $5-10. Your contribution of $250, $100, or even $50 goes a long way in AZ1. In Jesse Ventura’s 1998 Minnesota upset, voters chose the candidate who talked about issues while the R and the D eviscerated each other with personal attacks. In 2006, that upset will occur in Arizona’s First Congressional District. I’ve started the process. Now, my supporters and I need your help to promote our campaign for freedom, responsibility, and accountability. We’ve got a great opportunity to promote the liberty agenda. With your help, I can show strongly in the surveys leading up to the primary on September 12th. In this year of dissatisfaction with the major-party incumbents, that will shine a national spotlight on the three-way race in AZ1. That creates a platform for a strong, credible Libertarian candidate to share our positive Libertarian message of freedom and responsibility with the entire country. Please take just a moment to demonstrate your support for the ideals we share. Visit, volunteer, or contribute now. Schlosser for Congress - Arizona's 1st SchlosserForCongress.com 103 E Mohawk Dr | Flagstaff AZ 86001-6904 | 928-255-0195 Freedom - Responsibility - Accountability ... to balance the checkbook Positions * Education-choosing-Schlosser - Op-ed: Choosing education by David Schlosser, candidate for U.S. Congress, October 2006 Op-ed column: Zero-sum gameshttp://www.schlosserforcongress.com/media-press/op-ed/060906_Zero-sum_game.php When there are two people competing for a finite set of resources, whatever one person secures is lost to the other. In a two-party political system, what one party wins, the other party loses. Game theorists call this concept a “zero-sum game.” The logical assumption is that the two parties represent the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. A logical assumption, but – like most conventional wisdom – wrong. Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin. While those parties may be polarized, they do not represent a true alternative to each other. With rare and easily counted exceptions, both parties advocate the continual expansion of the Federal government into more and more varied parts of Americans lives. Both advocate spending priorities that exceed our ability to pay for them. Both believe the tax code is a tool for granting favors and encouraging or discouraging particular behaviors. Neither so opposes illegal immigration, pork-barrel spending, or the corrupting influence of special-interest campaign funding that it will pass any legislation to actually address those problems. Americans aren’t used to zero-sum games. At the grocery store, they can choose among hundreds of breakfast cereals and, if they don’t find a cereal they like, they can choose oatmeal, yogurt, a muffin, or fruit. Dozens of brands of automobiles, hundreds of stereos, thousands of styles of carpet and tile and wood and laminate, tens of thousands of book titles – Americans enjoy an embarrassment of riches in virtually every aspect of their lives, except their political choices. Examining the positions of Republicans and Democrats proves there is virtually no difference among their policy positions: On health care, Republicans tend to favor the extension of today’s failed strategy of predicating health insurance on employment at a company that provides health benefits or income-qualified public insurance for poor families. Democrats tend to favor the proven disaster of government-provided single-payer (Canadian- or British-style) socialized medicine. A real alternative to these failed ideas would acknowledge that individuals making choices in a competitive marketplace of insurance products can extend the benefits of health care to far more people, and do so far more effectively and affordably, than turning our hospitals into a branch of the DMV. To solve the problem of America’s dismal public primary and secondary education system, Democrats tend to favor greater Federal funding for smaller classes and more teachers, despite the fact that there is no correlation between improved educational outcomes and greater spending or smaller classes. Republicans tend to favor greater Federal funding conditioned on more testing, despite the fact that states and localities are free to manipulate the testing in whatever way necessary to continue securing their Federal funds. A real alternative to these failed ideas would acknowledge that the root of America’s educational problems lies in the monopoly provision of educational services predicated almost exclusively on where a student lives, rather than what a student needs to learn, and that educational choice is proven to improve outcomes through competition. In Iraq, Republicans tend to favor what Democrats call “stay and pay,” while Democrats tend to favor what Republicans call “cut and run.” Neither party acknowledges that both solutions demonstrably fail the test of wills between liberal democracies and the jihadists who realize that democracy threatens the only source of their power. A real alternative to these failed ideas would end the political mismanagement of the war in Iraq and apply the military strategy and resources necessary to successfully and swiftly conclude America’s engagement there. On such sensitive social issues as so-called “'gay marriage',” Democrats shy away from endorsing a solution that is near and dear to one of that party’s most steadfast constituencies because of the political danger of appearing outside the American mainstream. Republicans embrace the issue as an easy, demagogical successor to the abortion issue, now stalemated in the culture war. A real alternative to these non-solutions would acknowledge that the U.S. Constitution enumerates no role for the government in licensing or defining relationships among consenting adults, all of whom are created equal and all of whom must be treated equally. Republicans and Democrats share a willful ignorance about the demographic train wreck of Social Security and Medicare. Both parties refuse to acknowledge the simple mathematical truth that the hallmark of American retirement planning is entirely unsustainable over the long run. A real alternative to this head-in-the-sand magical thinking would recognize that, without massive and ongoing immigration of young and skilled workers into the American retirement security system, this Ponzi scheme is doomed to inevitable bankruptcy – either by running out of money or by crippling tax increases. Arguing over whether the system runs out of money in 2038 or 2042 is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Personal, portable, and transferable ownership of assets is the only solution – and it’s working in the countries that are abandoning New Deal-style entitlement programs. In failing to even vote on any immigration reform program before the 2006 elections, Democrats and Republicans prove their utter inability to lead, follow, or get out of the way on the issue most important to their constituents. Clever buzzwords like amnesties, guest workers, red-zone defenses, and walls all fail to acknowledge the simple supply-and-demand issues of immigration. A real alternative to these failed ideas would welcome law-abiding immigrants who want to become productive American citizens, and improve border security by allowing the allocation of resources to where they are most important – preventing border crossings by terrorists and criminals bent on mayhem and destruction. The dynamism of our culture and economy is based on circumventing the limits of a zero-sum game. Rather than worrying about how to take away someone else’s piece of pie, leaders and innovators figure out how to make the pie bigger, which benefits everyone. One of the last bastions of zero-sum thinking is the two-party system, in which Republicans and Democrats act as if they own the seats in Congress. Until voters break away from the zero-sum thinking of the two parties, they will fail to acknowledge the real owners of those seats: American citizens. Schlosser